Bumper Cars!!!!
ts.jpeg
On this ride there were two different types of collisions tested. The first type of collision was the inelastic collision in which the Cars collide and move off with the same velocity. This type of collision was not really possible due to the elasticity of the bumper around the car. What needed to be done in order for this collision to happen was one person was to be moving at a certain speed which would be slower then the other persons the Other person or the person about the other car would be traveling at a faster speed so that the two carts would move of with common velocity and momentum would be conserved.The second collision would be the elastic collision which was much more easy than the inelastic collision. In an elastic collision two objects collide and then move off in opposite direction. Here momentum is conserved also.


The other way in which we can analyze this is by newtons second and third law. The third law states that objects collide and exert the same amount of force on each other. Newtons second law states the force is proportional to mass and acceleration or force=Mass x acceleration. So in this case since we had one person who was much bigger than the other person or had a larger mass then the person will have a larger acceleration because his force must equal the heavier persons force.



Newtons Second Law
When we set out for Hershey Park Both Wes and Matt Found their force in newtons on the earth by using a force plate their force came out to be 1018.22 for Wes and 632.24 for Matt. Since for is mass multiplied by the gravity constant of 9.8 m/s^2 we can find their mass in kg by dividing the force of each person by 9.8 This would make Wes weigh 103.9 kg and Matt 64.51 Kg
1018.22/9.8=103.9
632.24/9.8=64.51
Then for each time The two of us collided in the cars we recorded one persons acceleration using the GLX. Then using this acceleration we found the acceleration of Wes by multiply Strevigs weight by his acceleration, then we divided the force by Wes's mass to find Wes's acceleration. Since Wes has a greater mass his acceleration should not be as great as Strevigs
newtons 3rd law F=F
newtons second law F=m x a
therefore m x a=m x a
Elastic collision- One cars at rest
we found the acceleration of the first collision with the glx from the graph which was about 13.6 m/s^2. here the graph goes up where we are moving forward then it drops suddenly so that is the acceeration after the hit.
grph.png

so in the first collision Matt had an acceleration of 13.6 m/s^2
and that would make Wes's acceleration 8.44 m/s^2
because 64.51 x 13.6= 103.9 x a where we solve for a to find Wes's acceleration. WE did this for three collisions one where Wes hit Matt while he was not moving, one where Wes hit Matt when Matt was moving slowly and one where Wes hit Matt when both were traveling at each other head on
Elastic collision-head on


Picture_5.png
Inelastic collision- one moving slowly
Elastic collision
This is the collision which occurred the most on the bumper cars ride, since the cars have a rubber bumper around them they tend to bounce of each other and move off in opposite directions. See here the mass x velocity of the first car + mass x velocity of the second car both before the collision, and it is equal to the mass x velocity of the first car + mass x velocity of the second car after the collision, or m1v1+m2v2=m1'v1'+m2'v2'. The kinetic energy of both bumper cars remains constant in that the energy isn't lost. The two cars will change their velocity if they have different velocities when they collide.

car1.jpeg



Inelastic collision
In this collision two cars must hit and stick together so to say or move off together with the same velocity. In this lab setting we had rubber bumpers around each of the cars so it was near impossible to get a perfectly inelastic collision the closest to that was when one car would be moving slowly and the other car would come up moving a little faster in the same direction and ease into the collision so the two cars would move off with a common velocity. This collision was not obtainable in the actual ride with the rubber siding so we can not analyze this collision in this way.